Selfie: How We Became So Self-Obsessed and What It’s Doing to Us
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/331496988″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /] We are supposed to be slim, prosperous, happy, extroverted and popular. This is our culture’s image of the perfect self. We see this person everywhere: in advertising, in the press, all over social media. We’re told that to be this person you just have to follow your dreams, […]
One Life 2017
Marking World Humanist Day, ‘One Life’ is The London Humanist Choir’s annual celebration of all things humanist, with singing, science, comedy, and indeed quite a lot more singing. Special guests include TV and radio comedian and bestselling author Tony Hawks; comedian and host of Science ‘Show Off’ Steve Cross; and Tim Renkow, comedian and star of […]
A Citizens Income – Could it Work?
A topic that’s generating interest at the moment. What if every adult in the UK was guaranteed a basic income whether you worked or were unemployed? Is it feasible? Has it been tried before? Could it work? Would it cripple our economy? Would we all become work-shy? These questions and more will be up for […]
Response-ability to Text – The Physicality of Poetry
This physical workshop will look at the potential relationships between choreography and experimental, contemporary and online poetry, by analyzing attention, gesture, and habit. The session consists of choreographic exercises looking at reading and listening in their physicality, as well as in their relationship to space, and to overlapping spaces. Experimenting with performance of speech is […]
An introduction to Anarchist Communism
Anarchist communism is an economic and political system based upon removing oppressive and exploitative structures in society (such as capitalism and the state), and building a society where everyone has an equal input into decisions that affect their life. As anarchist communists we fight for a world without leaders, where power is shared equally amongst […]
Striking to Win: Why is the Rent So Damn High?
Drastic increases in rent prices for students are tuition fee increases by stealth. We believe any call for free education must acknowledge the vital role rents play in the continuation of the current university system. In this workshop we’re seeking to discuss the relationship between the marketisation of public universities and the drastic increase in […]
Climate Change and the Water-Energy-Food Nexus
When we think of climate change we tend to conjure up images of global scale problems; rising temperatures, melting ice caps and swimming polar bears due to factories pumping out CO2 and giant oil rigs drilling holes in the sea floor. Changes in climate affect us all, however, it’s often the most vulnerable in society […]
Humans and Nature in the 21st Century
Drawing on the work of Lovelock, Humboldt and Kropotkin we will discuss human interaction with nature and how to achieve a balance between society’s needs and those of the planet, as a healthy, functioning ecosystem. Jonny Ritson will discuss his own research on peat bogs and their (mis)management as well as how land ownership and […]
Our Place in the Universe: The Story of Modern Cosmology
Cosmology as a science began exactly 100 years ago with Einstein’s first paper applying General Relativity to the entire Universe. This is an audacious attempt to apply a radical idea to something of monumental philosophical importance. Cosmologists seek to use observation, combined with mathematics, to understand fundamental questions related to the origin, composition, growth, and […]